Wet/Dry/Wet Amps | Wet Amps
The Wet/Dry/Wet Stereo Wet Amps with Stereo Effects Mix
The Wet/Dry/Wet Stereo WET Amps Overall Description
The Muse Guitarist’s studio has seven recording environment source groups designed to capture guitar performances using different collections of studio equipment.
This section will detail the Wet/Dry/Wet Stereo WET Amps group shown below.
The seven recording environment source groups:
1. Core Guitar Pedals – Front-end pedal collection for a “Dry”, direct input, performance track from a professional recording console channel strip. This creates the “Always On” primary guitar tone for all other recording environments.
The XLR Direct Output of the JHS Colour Box feeds the MOTU 8Pre ADAT #2 input 1
2. Stage Amps – The two high wattage tube amps:
- A vintage boutique ’82 Jim Kelley F.A.C.S. 30/60 with 6V6 power tube combo amp with upgraded new power supply capacitors and tube set driving a Scumback BM75-LD large diaphragm 12” speaker
- A modern 2021 Fender '65 Wine Red Twin Reverb 85-watt 6L6 power tube combo amp, a Sweetwater exclusive, driving a Neo 2x12 Celestion Creambacks combo cabinet
3. Bedroom Amps – The two low wattage tube amps:
- A Marshal style Blackstar HT20R MK II 20/2-watt EL84 two channel tube amp with reverb driving a custom Blackstar 12” speaker
- A Tone King Gremlin 5-watt upgraded EL34 tube amp driving a custom Blackstar 12” speaker. I did not like the KT88 stock tube-sound, and it is cathode biased so I replace the KT88 with an EL34
4. Wet/Dry/Wet Amps | Dry Amp – Wet/Dry/Wet | Dry Amp – A high wattage hybrid solid state amp:
- A Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 Floor solid state, tube emulation, 200/20/2-watt four channel amp head
- Two 12” Eminence speakers, a Redcoat Wizard and a Reignmaker, are the “Dry” amp speakers inside a Bugera twin 12” Eminence speaker cabinet
- A selectable mono effects pedalboard in the Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 has onboard Reverb, Delay, and Modulation choices: Chorus Flange, Phase, and Tremolo for the Mono effects chain.
5. Wet/Dry/Wet Amps | Wet Amps – High wattage solid state and tube amps:
- A Hartke HD 150 150-watt dual purpose amp: stereo effects mix left channel or a Bass guitar reamp mic’d amp feeding a custom Hartke 15” speaker
- A Bugera T50 Infinium 50-watt upgraded tube amp driving a Hughes & Kettner TS-112 Pro 12 cabinet with an ElectroVoice EVM12L 250 watt 12” speaker
6. Acoustic and Room Microphones:
- A Nady-TCM1050 condenser tube microphone with adjustable polar patterns for Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Dialog, and Room Tone recordings
- A Lauten Audio LA-220 condenser tube microphone also for Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Dialog, and Room Tone recordings in stereo
7. DAW Direct Outputs and Reamping:
- There are ten direct outputs from various points within the pedalboard chain
- Any track can become a Reamping Source using the MOTU 8Pre-es Analog Output 3
It is possible to record 24 performance tracks simultaneously from the Reaper DAW custom new musical portrait template.
The intent is NOT to use all 24 recorded tracks.
The goal is to capture as many different tone collections as possible and choose the one, or ones, that work best for the composition.
The song tracks not selected can be archived or deleted to reduce the total number of tracks being processed and delivered.
Wet/Dry/Wet Stereo Amps & Effects Mixer | The Direct Out and Mic'd Speaker Feeds:
The Wet/Dry/Wet triple amp configuration uses a H & K Black Spirit 200 Floorboard mono as the “Dry”, no wet effects, amp, a Hartke HD-150 left combo amp with its big 15” speaker, and a upgraded Bugera T-50 Infinium tube head feeding a H & K single 12” cabinet with an ElectroVoice EVM12L 250 watt power speaker.
The effects direct outs and amp outs are feed by an Allen & Heath ZED10 analog mixer.
The mixer has the Strymon stereo effects pedalboard out feeding mixer inputs 1 & 2.
The Source Audio digital stereo effects pedalboard out feeding mixer inputs 3 & 4.
A Stage Amp pedalboard out from the Switch Blade distribution box feeds a mono send to mixer inputs 7 & 8.
The Stage Amp feed is used to blend the final guitar tone that is sent to the Fender Twin Reverb and the Kelley F.A.C.S. 30/60 combo amps. This feed adds the distortion pedals wrapper to the stereo effects feed, when desired.
The entire mix has the BOSS EQ-200 as a stereo insert EQ before the Main outs and the Monitor outputs:
- Main Outputs feeds the MOTU 8Pre: ADAT #2 inputs 7 & 8, DAW #23 & #24
- Monitor Outputs feed the stereo amps: Hartke left and Bugera right inputs mic'd with two Slate Audio ML-2 modeling mics
The Slate ML-2 modeling mics are recoded as neutral condenser mics and modeled microphones are chosen after the performance has been recorded.
The Strymon Stereo Effects Pedalboard:
The Core Guitar tone is feed through the Cave distribution system using the Switchbone #2 Out “A’ to the mono left input of the Strymon TimeLine Stereo Delay pedal, as shown above.
The Strymon TimeLine Stereo Delay pedal feeds the UAD Starlight. This dual delay devices configuration allows for TimeLine effects to be selected as "Front-end Color Shaping" or as the primary delay setting with the Starlight adding "Back-end Color Shaping".
The UAD Starlight Echo Station adds a modern 2022 set of effects that compliment the classic Strymon TimeLine effects library or as a stand-alone delay device.
The last stereo wet effect is the Strymon Big Sky Stereo Reverb pedal for various special imaging effects including Halls, Plates, Springs, and Shimmer reverb effects.
The stereo output of the Big Sky Stereo Reverb pedal feeds the Allen & Heath ZED10 analog mixer input channels 1 & 2 to mix with the Source Audio Digital Stereo effects on channels 3 & 4 and the Stage Amps Distortion pedalboard mono feed on the ZED 10’s Stereo channels 7 & 8, as shown above.
The Source Audio Stereo Effects Pedalboard:
The Source Audio Stereo Digital Effects pedalboard is a hybrid Wet and Dry effects pedalboard.
The Core Guitar tone is feed through the Cave distribution system using the Switchbone #2 Out “B’ to the mono input of the electro-harmonix Soul Food, a Centaur Klon soft overdrive pedal clone.
The Soul Food role is to create an analog harmonic tonal wrapper that softens the digital qualities of the first of five stereo digital effects pedals selected in the stored “Pedalboard Scene” from the Soleman MIDI box and fed by the Neuro Hub pedal controller.
The L. A. Lady is a stereo multi-effects pedal for various digital distortion effects. There are dozens of classic pedal emulations that range from soft overdrive to full blown fuzz pedals that are special set in a stereo spectrum.
The C4 Synth is a programmable guitar tone synthesizer that is mainly used as an octave pedal for creating a stereo Bass Guitar tone under a lead guitar track.
The Lunar Phaser, along with its sister Gemini Chorus, are generally used together to create complementing modulation effects in stereo.
The Collider is a dual effects pedal that covers the last to stereo wet effects Delay and Reverb. Various delay types are available along with various reverbs paired together for a spacious stereo final image.
All of the Source Audio pedals are managed by the Neuro Hub that is connected with special TRRS 1/8” plug cables to all five pedals.
This connection allows the hub to scan all the pedals, get their current parameter settings and store them in the Soleman MIDI pedal. The current five settings scanned by the Neuro Hub are stored in “Scenes” within the Soleman MIDI box.
All of the Source Audio pedals are connected to the DELL Tower DAW computer with separate USB cables through a USB hub.
Source Audio provides two utility programs to manage all pedals and scenes.
The Neuro Hub program has a full feature colored interface to all the five pedal settings individually or as a stored scene.
The Source Audio Soleman utility provides a user interface to manage all features of the Soleman MIDI controller.